Memorandum from Refuge (SPP 48)
BACKGROUND
Refuge is the country's largest single provider
of domestic violence services for women and children—a national
"lifeline" for up to 80,000 women and children
every year. The organisation provides:
— Safe, emergency accommodation through
a growing network of refuges (including specialist refuges for
Asian and African-Caribbean women).
— Floating support (including culturally
specific specialist support and links to sanctuary schemes).
— Community based outreach services (including
specialist support for women from East Europe).
— Independent domestic violence advocacy
(IDVA) services.
— Psychological support for women and children,
including individual and group counselling.
— The Free Phone 24 hour National
Domestic Violence Helpline (in partnership with Women's Aid).
Refuge is committed to a world where domestic
violence is not tolerated and where women and children can live
in safety. In order to achieve this vision Refuge undertakes an
integrated approach to:
— Provide high quality services
to women and children exposed to domestic violence.
— Prevent domestic violence through
national award-winning communications campaigns, policy, training
and research.
— Protect women and children exposed
to domestic violence through lobbying for appropriate legislation
and developing best practice approaches to meet their needs.
As a service organisation, Refuge's strength
is the ability to ensure that the voices of the women and children
that we support each year are heard in national decision-making
processes.
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Refuge welcomes the inquiry that the
Communities and Local Government Committee is undertaking into
the Government's "Supporting People" programme.
1.2 Supporting People provides a valuable
funding stream for the provision of domestic violence services,
including refuge accommodation, floating support and resettlement
services. However Refuge remains concerned that there are crucial
gaps in services for which the Supporting People Programme does
not provide, including counselling for women and children traumatised
by domestic violence.
1.3 As the single largest provider of domestic
violence services in the country, Refuge's experience of the four
key themes outlined in "Independence and Opportunity: Our
Strategy for Supporting People" is contained within the written
evidence below:
2. KEEPING PEOPLE
THAT NEED
SERVICES AT
THE HEART
OF THE
PROGRAMME
2.1 Women who use domestic violence services
represent only 3% of the client group within the Supporting People
Programme. Refuge does not believe that their service needs are
at the heart of the programme, but are "lost" within
the needs of the wider client group.
2.2 Refuge believes that this is because
women who experience domestic violence are not inherently vulnerable.
Whilst there are some particularly vulnerable groups of
women (such as disabled women and women with mental health problems)
who may be less able to take steps to protect themselves than
other women experiencing domestic violence, it must be recognised
that domestic violence is a prevalent social issue. Indeed, according
to the British Crime Survey (2004) one in four women will experience
domestic violence in her lifetime.
2.3 As a result there is a crucial difference
between what is understood by "independence" for women
experiencing domestic violence and other vulnerable groups. Women
experiencing domestic violence as a group generally already possess
the skills necessary for independent living. The crucial difference
is that the abuser will have deliberately and systematically sought
to limit and undermine their independence through a number of
control tactics including fear, intimidation and physical violence.
As a consequence, the vast majority of women experiencing domestic
violence are perfectly able to exercise choice and control when
they get the opportunity to do so. The role of staff in domestic
violence services is to help women recover from the violence that
they have experienced and to empower them to regain control of
their lives.
2.4 There is, therefore, a gap between the
aims and the objectives of the Supporting People Programme and
the aims and objectives of specialist providers of domestic violence
services such as Refuge. This is illustrated by the national outcome
framework developed by the Supporting People Programme which is
designed to be applied across all client groups, but which may
have unintended and even life-threatening consequences for women
experiencing domestic violence. When it comes to supported housing
in a domestic violence context, Refuge believes that it is important
to establish specific outcomes for domestic violence services
and has adapted the generic outcomes framework to this end.
2.5 Refuge is reassured that the majority
of Supporting People Officers at the local level understand the
points outlined above. Unfortunately, however, there are occasions
when inappropriate service specifications are developed. For instance,
Refuge has come across requirements which include: supervising
women over their evening meal, banning alcohol from refuge premises
and imposing male "role-models" on women using domestic
violence services. Similarly, the term "empowerment"
was interpreted by one local authority to mean that it was appropriate
for men with alcohol problems from a nearby hostel to participate
in the inspection of one of the refuges run by Refuge. As a consequence,
Refuge has been forced to withdrawn from inappropriate and even
potentially dangerous service proposals, but is concerned that
non-specialist organisations will have sought to implement them.
3. ENHANCING
PARTNERSHIP WITH
THE THIRD
SECTOR
3.1 Refuge believes that in some areas there
are examples of where Supporting People works well with the third
sector and commissioning is undertaken in a specialist way. Overall,
however, Refuge believes that partnership working is inconsistent.
3.2 Refuge is also concerned with the inclusion
of housing associations within the definition of "third sector"
since they are able to absorb central management costs in a way
that specialist domestic providers are unable to replicate. This
is having a negative impact on the survival of the specialist
women's sector.
3.3 Refuge recommends that experienced specialist
domestic violence providers must play a central role in commissioning
new provision if services are to be appropriate and reflect the
real needs of women and children.
4. DELIVERING
IN THE
NEW LOCAL
GOVERNMENT LANDSCAPE
4.1 It is too early to say what impact the
introduction of local area agreements is having on domestic violence
services. The new arrangements have the potential to develop an
integrated approach to domestic violence services. Yet it is a
disappointment to the domestic violence sector that there is only
one national performance indicator related to domestic violence
and this focuses on repeat victimisation through Multi-Agency
Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) which tend to address only
the needs of high risk victims.
4.2 The trend towards local decision making
is reflected in the removal of ring-fenced funding for domestic
violence services. This means that there is no longer any form
of secure funding framework for these services which more than
pay for themselves in the savings saved elsewhere in the system.[16]
4.3 In addition, current trends in commissioning
indicate that the specialist needs of women and children experiencing
domestic violence are being subsumed within generic service provision.
This means that services provided for women and by women are at
risk (for example, floating support services), as are services
for women from specific ethnic backgrounds. Important and potentially
life-saving elements of services (such as referral processes)
are also being "rationalised" with some local authorities
wanting to develop centralised systems. In the case of one area
in which Refuge works this system means that professionals with
little understanding of domestic violence are putting women at
high risk on waiting lists for services that are up to a year
long.
4.4 All of this means that organisations
such as Refuge have to lower their unit costs in order to remain
"competitive". Some local authorities regard domestic
violence services as constituting low level support which requires
three hours support per women, per week. This fails to reflect
the reality of the support provided by domestic violence services
and leads to constant insecurity and instability for services.
4.5 The Department for Communities and Local
Government (CLG) and the Office for the Third Sector have a responsibility
to provide national guidance for local authorities in order to
ensure that local level commissioning is consistent. Refuge also
believes that the requirement for local authorities to inform
CLG of the closure of domestic violence services should be re-instated.
4.6 Above all it must be recognised by Government
that funding for domestic violence services cannot be wholly determined
by local need. Women experiencing domestic violence often flee
across local authority boundaries and reciprocal arrangements
need to be put in place. The need for local priorities to be influenced
by a national strategy is illustrated through the existence of
a national domestic violence helpline which acts as a gateway
to services. Yet research by the End Violence Against Women (EVAW)
campaign highlights that there are still a sizeable number of
local authority areas that do not provide domestic violence services
at all. In fact the UK has still not achieved the Select Committee
recommended refuge space per 10,000 of the population[17]
resulting in an ongoing "postcode lottery" for women
and children experiencing domestic violence.
5. INCREASING
EFFICIENCY AND
REDUCING BUREAUCRACY
5.1 Although administration of the Supporting
People Programme has placed a huge amount of pressure on providers
of domestic violence services, Refuge recognises that the Quality
Assessment Framework (QAF) has introduced quality standards which
have, in many cases, improved services.
5.2 Refuge has invested significant time
and resources into the Supporting People Programme and believes
that these achievements should be built upon. Yet the current
context is "review light" in the sense that Supporting
People Officers are communicating that it is too onerous to award
"A" grades to services due to the paperwork involved.
Refuge is proud of its consistent record of "A" grade
services so this trend towards awarding "C" grades as
a matter of course is very concerning, especially when they are
used as the basis for commissioning decisions.
May 2009
16 Scottish Women's Aid (2008) Domestic Abuse Support
Services and the Removal of Ring Fence Funding from Supporting
People Back
17
Government Select Committee recommendations 1975 & 1997 Back
| 
